Post subject: Got my saw and my tinsnips out, now where to put these holes

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 8:15 am

Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2004 8:08 amPosts: 355

I'm still undecided about where to put my fans.

I have the first antec lanboy. I'm definitely opening up the rear 80mm fan grill and putting a 120mm evercool there. The psu has already been modded to a single quet fan and will be ducted to the top.

I am clocking, i have a customised zalman setup (with massive extra heatsink) so i have no cpu fan or chipset fans, i just want to remove hot air from my cpu and the surrounding area as effectively as possible.

My original plan was to have a 120mm fan at the front of the pc as well, with the hard drive vertically suspended in front of it, to keep it cool. This means i'll have a fan pushing and a fan pulling through the whole system.

Do you think i'd be better off using a side panel fan instead, as aan exhaust as well, and use that pressure to pull air through the front intake instead? Or should i have a side intake to blow air over the mobo?

Ummm....This is "Silent"PC Review. Just how do these extra holes you're cutting in your already-light case translate into a quiet setup? You can make your Lanboy quiet, but not with more, bigger, noiser fans.

My first really quiet case was that same Lanboy you propose to modify. It can be made quiet and cool, but it takes some work. Most people around here will tell you to buy a quiet steel case....that works. But if you want a quiet Lanboy, you'll have to come up with a more involved solution.

Sorry about the delay in replying, been on holiday at the coast for the past week.

Now i'm afraid i'm not a purist silent pc user, i'm one of these muddled confused types who thinks everything about modding pcs is cool, whether it's for quietness, looks, or clock speed.

I've read your article a couple of times, it's good to know that the lanboy can be made utterly silent, but i'm afraid that isnt what i'm trying to achieve...

With my pc i'm atttempting to strike a baalance between looks, performance, and noise. When my pc is under full load i dont midd it making somewhat of a racket, as long as it's pulling plenty of air through. When idling i'd like it to be a lot quieter, but i'm NOT aiming for silence (BLASPHEMY!)

three reasons
a) i can't afford the premium on silent components, i've already bought too much...
b) Looks are important to me, this pc will look very nice once i'm done
c) Being young and impressionable, i like overclocking.

So, considering all of this, would i see a better airflow with one intake where the hard drive cage usually is and an exhaust at the back, or with 2 exhausts near the back of the case?

I apologise if i have come across as bullish or ignorant, but i do know what i'm trying to achieve and i realise this is not an optimal solution.

Compromise is terrible, it just leaves you with loads of things that aren't quite satisfactory.

So heres some pics of my current setup. I get really good temps and its real quiet.

Here I cut 3 - 3" holes on the floor of the case. I used a 3" circular drill bit, the kind used to install door knobs. It was real fast. The case is raised off the floor with wheels. As you can see, i could care less about dust.

This big hole in the back was where I had 2 80m exhaust fans mounted. I removed them and remounted them elswhere. The whole is left as is, yes its a big hole. For the PSU fan i removed it and the remounted it backwards so it sucks air in. This is so it get cool air from outside. Also the PSU is mounted upside down. The air blown into the case is expelled upwards directly towards the exhaust fans.

Here are the fans final resting place. On top blowing air out of the case. Heat rises so this in my opinion is the best way to expell air. I have the fans running at 5v. I normally would have used my 3" drill bit to cut 4 holes instead of fabricating this plexi glass mount, but there was a vent thing on the top of the case right where i wanted the holes to be.

interesting setup - my case is too short to allow for top mounted fans so i have to either put them in the bottom or around the back front and sides. I thought it would be best to have them closest to the hottest components, to keep the bulk of the air in the case as cool as possible.

What i am confused about is the merits of push-pull fans vs positive and negative pressure cases. Most of the more silent designs i've seen here seem to use one of the latter, presumably to cut down the fan count.

Perhaps i should just create a big muffler box and a positive pressure design, see if i can go entirely fanless... hmm...

Hi ONEshot, yea big holes. So you can better understand my reasons; I orginially wanted to build an open air case. I was going to replace the side panels with modders mesh, but i couldnt find a place that would sell it in sizes larger than 1sq'. So i decided to just go low tech and simple. I discovered how cool a case can be when the side panel is left off. I wanted to recreate this senerio without leaving the panels off. Holes on the floor is the best way to conceal and get cool air. As for the hole on the back, thats just laziness. Since my components are all pretty quiet, muffling is not an issue. I'll try to post case temps tonight.

Sorry greeef, I should have just started a new thread. I'm sorry this setup wont work for you. I do think that you should try to expell the air from one place near the top of the case. This will cause cool air intake from the back vent. This air will flow directly to your cpu heatsink.

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